A man was taken into custody after a standoff with police near the Scituate Public Safety Complex.

Scituate Police Chief Mike Stewart said 46-year-old Douglas Simonovitch was taken into custody just before 1 p.m. His last known address is in Oxford.

Stewart said the man was intoxicated and made threats to nearby police officers, which prompted a large police response to the area.

“He indicated that he was armed with two 45’s and 14-round clips and if any officers – he could see the police officers on Route 3A – if they approached him, there was going to be a problem,” said Stewart.

Around 8:30 this morning, Stewart said a distraught female called Scituate Police saying that Simonovitch had made suicidal statements and left her vehicle on Route 3A by the Public Safety Complex.

“Officers responding to the scene discovered that he had fled to a wooded area,” said Stewart. “The officers established communications with him via cell phone. It was during that communication he indicated that he was armed.”

Nearby schools were told to shelter-in-place, homes were evacuated, and a section of Route 3A was shut down during the incident.

Numerous law enforcement units responded to the scene, including the MetroLEC SWAT team, State Police, ATF, and the FBI.

“This is the type of response that this gets now. The whole idea is one; we’re concerned with his safety. We’re concerned with containing him,” said Stewart. “We had the proper amount of people here to contain him. We had personnel with additional telephone capabilities beyond our officers who were able to make sure that were able to ping his phone and keep him on the line.”

Officers followed a Rook unit, which is an armored Bobcat, into the woods and took Simonovitch into custody.

While Simonovitch had a backpack with him, Stewart says they have not found firearms nearby. Units are searching the area.

“Nobody saw him with weapons, even the female acquaintance this morning had not seen him with weapons,” said Stewart. “He did have a backpack on, and we knew he was despondent. He indicated he was going to harm himself with a firearm.”

Simonovitch was being booked at the Scituate Police Station on outstanding warrants for violating a restraining order out of Rockland.

Stewart says they’ll assess charges for the incident today.

“There’s likely to be no charges here. While he did make a threatening response to the officers, the officers were never exposed to a firearm. We have not located a firearm,” said Stewart. “Right now we’re concerned for his mental health and we’re taking steps towards improving that circumstance.”

Members of the MetroLEC SWAT team head toward the Safety Complex. Photo credit: Lenny Rowe.

The Rook unit, which cleared the way for officers in the woods. Photo credit: Lenny Rowe.

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About Lenny Rowe

Lenny Rowe is one of the newest additions to the WATD News team.
He grew up in Pembroke and was an intern at WATD in 2012. A 2016 graduate from Suffolk University, Lenny left the City of Boston and now lives in Rockland.
Lenny has covered both news and sports, from the trial of James "Whitey" Bulger to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.
Outside of WATD, Lenny covers high school sports for The Boston Globe.
Lenny can be reached at Lenny.Rowe30@Gmail.com